Denver 4th most literate city

Denver is the 4th most literate city in the country -- scooting past San Francisco and Boston, according to a study released this week by Central Connecticut State University.

But the oft-talked about "Colorado paradox" -- meaning the state's higher-than-average education levels in the workforce reflect that the state has imported them, and K-12 and higher education systems are not keeping pace -- could hurt the city's ranking in the future.

Central Connecticut State President Jack Miller studied 69 cities' Internet usage, newspaper readership and library memberships, among other factors. Minneapolis held the top spot.

According to the survey, 36 percent of Denverites held bachelors degrees or something more advanced, which ranks 15th in the country.

But the number of high school dropouts citywide is dragging the overall average down. About 82 percent of Denverites had a high school diploma — which ranks 36th in the country, said Mark McLaughlin, university spokesman.

In 2006, 68 percent of the city's residents in 2006 held library cards, said M. Celeste Jackson, a spokeswoman for the Denver Public Library.

That same year there were 37.7 million online "transactions" through the library's website, meaning people who checked out books or researched the online database.

A November study by the National Endowment of the Arts found readership going down among adults aged 18 to 44. Nearly half of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 read no books for pleasure.

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Central Connecticut State has been doing the study since 2003. Denver has been in the top 10 every year.

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